Nick Garner. Global Head of Search, UnibetHe is the head of Search which includes SEO and SMO (social media optimisation) for Unibet, a large European bookmakers. He is a recognised expert in SEO within the gaming industry with a long track record of commercial successes. An internet marketing veteran, Nick has been architecting and building websites for the last 13 years. He puts his SEO successes down to a practical understanding of internet related technology, human behaviour and ‘outreach’ to win the best links from 3rd party web sites. Nick is a family man and competitive international sportsman based just outside London.

ICE totally gaming / Nick Garner 

Social Proof & ZMOT. Ideas for iGaming

New acquisitions

Where is the new business coming from? 

Trackable 50%• Adwords/SEO• Campaign• Affiliate

Direct 50%• Word of mouth• Social Proof• Brand Stimulus• Other 

Tracking conundrum...

Marketing budget is assigned where there's accountability.

£ -£

No tracking, no accountability, no budget...

Lets look at customer behaviour

Do we really buy just because of the banner advert? 

What's your online shopping pattern?

Is it this?

The traditional marketing funnel

Or this?

The reality...

How can you 100% track this?

Another way of looking at things

Maybe, reset your expectations for online as a '100% trackable direct marketing' channel. 

ZMOT – Zero Moment of Truth

Understanding buyer influences...a little better.

ZMOT: 5,000 Respondents

Shopper Science was commissioned by Google in 2011 to make more sense of social proof online.

Brand Stimulus

ZMOT

First Moment of Truth

Second Moment of Truth

“I don't like – I share with a bad rating & review!”

“I do like – I share with a good rating & review!”

ZMOT is huge

84% say ZMOT shaped their purchasing decisions.

This shows the power of online feedback and research.

Context : Credit Cards

Gambling > Credit Cards

“Depending on the complexity and value of the product or service, users will research at different times.”

Research Cycles

Age and Behaviour

The young use search engines more, buy online more, but don't rate/feedback like Gen X. 

Source:The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project 

All ages: Online behavior

Learning to find the proof...

Source:Shopper Sciences

In 2011 the average shopper used 10.4 information sources to make a purchasing decision in 2011. Up from 5.3 sources in 2010. 

Different sectors: varying No. of sources of information & varying importance of  'social proof'

Netgen...

15 years of mainstream internet:

Source:The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project 

Hypothesis: Learning to use the internet is like learning a language. Natives understand the subtle signals. Late learners can still communicate, just not so well.

Actions you can take

Perspective: 1% > 2% conversion rate

Reputation marketing

“Half my advertising iswasted, I just don’t know which half.” 

Treat online reputationmanagement like brand/prspend.

Honest reviews...?

iGaming: social proof is distorted by affiliates.

Find your Zero moments

Turn 1 in 100 to 2 in 100. Only a small group care about you.

Marketing = "managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders" Source:Wikipedia

Find the greatest Intent hot spots where potential customers seek information and validation about your service or product:- Forums - Trusted Reviews - Thought leaders - Tidy up your Google search results. 

Manage those touch points. The traffic won't always be big, but the commercial intent is huge.

Last Click (isn't) Always Best

Review your tracking. Can you set up decent attribution modelling? I.e. can you go upstream of the last click? 

Google Analytics will give you 1st contact phrase and subsequent converting phrase. 

Look at some "customer journey mapping":

Final thoughts

• Question: What percentage of your new customers are 'direct' i.e. you have no marketing data for them? is it about 50%?. Those are 'influenced' people.

• Get someone in charge of ZMOT• Map out customer touch points online. Use ZMOT to help focus this

process (Search engines, places of discussion) • Look at your reporting systems. Do you ignore huge opportunities

because they are difficult for business cases?• Can you use some of your brand money for ZMOT?• Accept you won't get 100% attribution tracking, but it's improving all

the time.

Thanks!

Nick Garner